Condor - cheating issue

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havet865
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Condor - cheating issue

Post by havet865 » Mon Jan 16, 2023 12:04 pm

Good morning everyone,

Opening the following thread to talk with you about potential cheating issues in Condor.

We are closely monitoring what is going on in other eSports races worldwide (sailing, motorsports, FIFA…), to see which challenges they are facing and how we should overcome them one day if it happens in Virtual Gliding.
This weekend has been a very bad weekend for motorsports eSports with a cheating issue and several technical issues (see the other post).

F1 eSports pilots Dani Moreno and Jarno Opmeer have spotted a cheating issue during the livestreaming of a mixed amateur/professional eSports contest (PremierSim GL).
The issue is not easy to spot for someone who does not play the F1 game at a pro level, but it was easy for them to spot it.

Jarno said about the incident:
"This one was really easy to catch as he was driving like a potato. Had to lift turn 1 missed half of the apexes, Had no minimum speed all lap, line through maggots and baggots was terrible. All of this and yet this lap would have been enough for like P10 on the F1 Esports grid. But the main thing to actually see is a lack of slip angle on the front tires when they obviously turn too much or get near the limit. Having traction of the average top fuel drag car is a bit obvious as well."

Would you be able to spot it yourself? I doubt it, even if you're an F1 fan.

You can watch the video below:
https://twitter.com/DaniMorenoF1/status ... mOoWWOAfQA

There was a quick and fair response from the organizers after the event, when this was spotted by pro players: the driver has been removed from leagues with immediate effect = banned to all events.

We have launched a 'Pilot's Handbook' guide for our next event, the 'World Series 2023'.
It is something that has been done for other eSports (FIFA, F1...) and this document is needed to cover such cases (cheating, relations between players, teams and organizers, legal disputes). This document is meant to protect everyone involved in the races and has to be followed to allow the project to grow. There might be a cash prize one day, and there may be professional teams and professional e-airsports pilots in the future too. It just depends on how we manage to make the sport grow as a community, and how much support there is from the fans and public as well.

You may have a look at it on our website: https://www.virtualgliding.fai.org/world-series

------------------------------------------------------------

Now onto cheating issues in Condor!

We are working very closely with the Condor developpement team (including Uros) to limit the possibility of cheating in any race.
We have some secret tools and there are experienced pilots and organizers running the events, who have been running daily races for years.

I strongly invite pilots who may be aware of cheating in any FAI VG event to come forward via our email address: fai.virtual.gliding@gmail.com so that we can evaluate the issue and communicate accordingly.

We have been aware of an issue related to 'external view' since the beginning of FAI races: some pilots are using the external view to get a clear view of what is ahead, which goes against the gliding game. De-zooming should not be done to get a proper advantage on other competitors.

We have allowed external view to pilots so that they can be more comfortable in the air and avoid mid-air collisions. It is also more fun to take screenshots from the outside to showcase the sport and show to your friends what you/we are doing :wink:

We will not change the rule and not apply penalties for this, because it is something we supported... and we knew that some would try to take advantage of it as well. Does it give a clear advantage if you can see 15 minutes ahead, while Condor is refreshing the weather every 15 min or so? There are discussions about it as well.

We will continue having discussions about this issue in the coming days and we will allow it (or not) for the World Series.
Anyone who wants to talk about this issue or any other issue below is invited to do so to try to influence our minds :-)

One thing is almost certain though, for very competitive and restricted events with limited pilots: we will disable the external view to counter this issue. (ie. VSGP - World Final)

You may react here or preferably directly in our 'Discussion' posts on Discord: https://discord.gg/5qr9V9dBYS

Thanks for your feedback!
Have a good week,

Antoine

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Paul_UK
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by Paul_UK » Tue Jan 17, 2023 8:41 am

My views on external view.

The point of Condor to me is it is a simulator and in competitions should reflect RL as close as possible. When competing under FAI rules in qualifying rounds / the world finals etc things should be made as close to RL as possible. As long as the world series tasks do not have any bearing on which pilots enter the world finals then I see where you're coming from ref leaving external view enabled. Ref the 15min thing, as far as I am aware once a thermal has began forming it will not move position, even when the weather is updated so what you see ahead thermal wise is what you'll get. Please correct me though if I am wrong in my understanding of the weather update.

If you wanted to disable on all FAI tasks then you could have a trusted team member view as a spectator to take screenshots etc of the race. Those could be uploaded to your site so pilots could then share images with their friends.

As you've been looking into other eSports, in the driving community do they allow external view? I've only ever seen drivers driving from cockpit view in the limited videos I've seen. Same for me when I used to drive in Assetto Corsa, I only used cockpit view. It'd be interesting to know what the other eSports allow in this respect.
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2018 - Silver Badge complete - Forgot I could claim for the 100km diploma flying an out and return :oops:
2019 - Get up to speed and aim for a 300km task?! maybe.....

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Kekelekou
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by Kekelekou » Tue Jan 17, 2023 9:28 am

The unfair external view is not the close-up to take a nice screenshot, but the maxed zoom-out that allows for weather reconnaissance and situation awareness. I suppose it wouldn't be too complicated to limit the available zoom-out value available for all players who are flying the task.
A password protected "unrestricted" external view could be implemented for the official broadcasters for educational and dramatisation purposes :lol:
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havet865
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by havet865 » Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:10 pm

Kekelekou wrote:
Tue Jan 17, 2023 9:28 am
The unfair external view is not the close-up to take a nice screenshot, but the maxed zoom-out that allows for weather reconnaissance and situation awareness. I suppose it wouldn't be too complicated to limit the available zoom-out value available for all players who are flying the task.
A password protected "unrestricted" external view could be implemented for the official broadcasters for educational and dramatisation purposes :lol:
100% correct. That would be ideal, but I think Uros is working on other stuff now :wink:

For the F1 eSports followers, there has been another big cheating issue the past few days.
Looks like some users have a cheating tool allowing them to get extra grip during the races... hence going at a much greater speed than usual into the corners. Very worrying because they don't find a solution yet, they can ban the cheaters but that's it.

Reminder: that is our policy here as well, banning cheating competitors.

Michael McKay (MJ)
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by Michael McKay (MJ) » Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:04 pm

I mentioned this on Discord but didn't get a reply there - apologies for the duplication. Is there an issue with the live streaming? The live stream of the 7:30pm time slot, especially for the tasks where the terrain and wind play a large part, can give a tactical advantage to players who are in the following time slots the next day. It might be better to delay the stream to the last slot - you'd then be able to compare all three races.

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maymar
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by maymar » Tue Mar 14, 2023 6:49 pm

Michael McKay (MJ) wrote:
Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:04 pm
It might be better to delay the stream to the last slot - you'd then be able to compare all three races.
+1

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Snapcase
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by Snapcase » Mon Mar 20, 2023 6:06 pm

Michael McKay (MJ) wrote:
Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:04 pm
I mentioned this on Discord but didn't get a reply there - apologies for the duplication. Is there an issue with the live streaming? The live stream of the 7:30pm time slot, especially for the tasks where the terrain and wind play a large part, can give a tactical advantage to players who are in the following time slots the next day. It might be better to delay the stream to the last slot - you'd then be able to compare all three races.
+1
Wojciech Sołtysik - SOL - Poland

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JBlyth
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by JBlyth » Fri Mar 22, 2024 1:45 pm

I think delaying the "Live Stream" until after the last time slot could have benefits, but technically may be very hard to do.

I've compared a combined task of all time slots on Soaring Lab, and there are significant issues as there are timing discrepancies between the IGC tracks for some reason, with people scoring in front of me in the results, actually being behind me when the merged tracks are replayed. So that is something that will have to be addressed first.

However, I do not believe there is any usable competitive advantage in watching a live stream. As a constant flier in the 0100 UTC timeslot, I think the benefits of being able to watch any Live Stream is minimal, as the weather is randomly different between time slots.

Until the last series that finished yesterday, I always felt at a great disadvantage when compared to the very large fleets that fly the earliest timeslot. Flying with just one or two other competitors is a very distinct disadvantage, in my experience.

On occasion, I do look briefly at the Live Stream, skimming through it quickly before a race. Do I use any information from that viewing? No. Actually, I don't find it of much use at all from a competition point of view!

What has been of great benefit, however, is the 30+ pilots flying in my 0100 UTC timeslot in the past few weeks. I even managed to score a spot in the 1st FAI Virtual World Gliding Championship - Qualifiers yesterday. That most certainly wasn't assisted by any live stream, but most definitely by having 30+ pilots to fly with.

Perhaps a some pilots were surprised when suddenly a few American/Canadian/Australian/and other pilots started appearing in the top order? This has more to do with pilots numbers in a time slot than any supposed benefit from watching any live stream, at least in my opinion and experience.

Live Stream has been available for a while now, and apart from one or two very skilled pilots who fly the later time slots, the smaller fleet numbers has meant that we rarely do well. Larger numbers? Then we apparently become overnight successes ;-).....

Cheers
John in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia

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wickid
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by wickid » Fri Mar 22, 2024 2:39 pm

The solution to eliminate any potential prior knowledge due to the livestreaming would be to have the non live streamed servers before the livestream server. Have the competition day that are now +1 day in front of the 19:00UTC server. So the server order would be:

01:00UTC
11:00UTC
19:00UTC with Livestream.

Drawback is for the competitors on the earlier servers that would mean the servers start a day earlier. They would be monday/tuesday evening instead of tuesday/wednesday.
PH-1504, KOE

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Mikko
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Re: Condor - cheating issue

Post by Mikko » Wed Mar 27, 2024 11:14 am

wickid wrote:
Fri Mar 22, 2024 2:39 pm
The solution to eliminate any potential prior knowledge due to the livestreaming would be to have the non live streamed servers before the livestream server. Have the competition day that are now +1 day in front of the 19:00UTC server. So the server order would be:

01:00UTC
11:00UTC
19:00UTC with Livestream.

Drawback is for the competitors on the earlier servers that would mean the servers start a day earlier. They would be monday/tuesday evening instead of tuesday/wednesday.
We discussed this same approach with Jarmo during the last FAI event and I would see this as better solution. As the 19:00 UTC would be the last ones flying, it would also allow the live stream to cover how the final results are playing out as the pilots are uploading the scores to the condor-club.

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